Stéphane’s Blog for April 18, 2011

First birds banded!

The storm lingered in early morning today, with overcast skies and a still strong Northwest wind. Finally, the wind started to die down, allowing some nets to be open. In total, 10 nets were open for 3 hours. And we got birds! Only 6 birds were caught, showing how little activity there is in the aftermath of the cold and snowy weather of yesterday. The first bird banded this year is a Hermit Thrush! A couple of Juncos and Golden-crowned Kinglets were also captured, as well as one Chickadee.

There was no big display of birds of prey today, but still, 3 Bald Eagles were seen. On Georgian Bay, one lone Horned Grebe was fishing near shore. Further away, a small raft of 5 Long-tailed Ducks was spied. Among several Juncos, there was one American Tree Sparrow.

A proud member of the Canadian Migration Monitoring Network

The Cabot Head Research Station is one of 25 bird migration monitoring stations across Canada. Providing baseline information on avian populations by sampling migrants, by capture or observation, daily during migration contributes to our knowledge about bird populations and movement.